Sec. 8. Organic agricultural product imports interagency working group
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The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 is amended by inserting after section 2122 ( 7 U.S.C. 6521 ) the following: The Secretary and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall jointly establish a working group to facilitate coordination and information sharing between the Department of Agriculture, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Food and Drug Administration relating to imports of organically produced agricultural products (referred to in this section as the working group ).
The working group— shall include— the Secretary (or a designee); the Commissioner of Food and Drugs (or a designee); and the Secretary of Homeland Security (or a designee); and shall not include any non-Federal officer or employee. The working group shall facilitate coordination and information sharing between the Department of Agriculture, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Food and Drug Administration for the purposes of— identifying imports of organically produced agricultural products; verifying the authenticity of organically produced agricultural product import documentation, such as national organic program import certificates; ensuring imported agricultural products represented as organically produced meet the requirements under this title; collecting and organizing quantitative data on imports of organically produced agricultural products; and reporting to Congress on— enforcement activity carried out by the Department of Agriculture, U.S.
Customs and Border Protection, or the Food and Drug Administration in the United States or abroad; and barriers to preventing agricultural products fraudulently represented as organically produced from entry into the United States. An employee or official designated to carry out the duties of the Secretary, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Commissioner of Food and Drugs on the working group under subparagraph
(A)or
(B)of paragraph
(2)shall be an employee or official compensated at a rate of pay not less than the minimum annual rate of basic pay for GS–12 under section 5332 of title 5, United States Code. On an annual basis, the working group shall submit to Congress and make publically available on the websites of the Department of Agriculture, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Food and Drug Administration the following reports: A report— identifying existing barriers to cooperation between the agencies involved in agricultural product import inspection, trade data collection and organization, and organically produced agricultural product trade enforcement, including— U.S. Customs and Border Protection; the Food and Drug Administration; the Agricultural Marketing Service; and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service; assessing progress toward integrating organic trade enforcement into import inspection procedures of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, including an assessment of— the status of the development of systems for— tracking the fumigation of imports of organically produced agricultural products into the United States; and electronically verifying national organic program import certificate authenticity; and training of U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel on— the use of the systems described in clause (i); and requirements and protocols under this title; establishing outcome-based goals for ensuring imports of agricultural products represented as organically produced meet the requirements under this title; recommending steps to improve the documentation and traceability of imported organically produced agricultural products; recommending and describing steps toward the goals of— achieving complete compliance with the requirements of this title for all agricultural products imported into the United States and represented as organically produced; and ensuring accurate labeling and marketing of imported agricultural products represented as organically produced by the exporter; providing a timeline for implementing the steps described in subparagraph (E); identifying additional resources needed to achieve any unmet goals; and describing staffing needs at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Agriculture to achieve the goals for ensuring organic integrity described in the report. A report— providing detailed quantitative data (broken down by commodity type, quantity, value, month, and origin) on imports of agricultural products represented as organically produced found to be fraudulent or lacking any documentation required under this title at the port of entry during the report year; providing data on domestic enforcement actions taken on imported agricultural products represented as organically produced, including— the number and type of actions taken by United States officials at ports of entry in response to violations of this title; and the total quantity and value of the agricultural products that were the subject of the actions, broken down by product variety and country of origin; providing data on fumigation of agricultural products represented as organically produced at ports of entry and notifications of fumigation actions to shipment owners, broken down by product variety and country of origin; and providing information on enforcement activities under this title involving overseas investigations and compliance actions taken within that year, including— the number of investigations by country; and a descriptive summary of compliance actions taken by certifying agents in each country. .
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Sec. 8
Organic agricultural product imports interagency working group
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